The master plan
Most days, they are your everyday midlife Canadian women. But at least one day a week, they are athletes. They spike volleyballs, throw javelins, jump hurdles and swim in sync. They dash, leap, row and pedal mountain bikes up hills and across rocky, root-riddled terrain. Women with special talent or training? No. Just women involved in masters sports.
As music pulsed through the underwater speakers, Diane Kerner tucked backwards under the water, propelled her legs into the air and, through sheer abdominal strength, held them there through a complex set of moves. Known as a “figure,” the set ended with the splits and a front walkover. For the first time ever, Kerner did not pop out of the water eight beats before her teammates. She was in sync! Her grin split ear to ear.
Kerner recalls that moment four years ago with perfect clarity. She had joined a masters synchronized swimming team in Toronto — her first time back at the sport in more than two decades. “For most of that first year,” she says, “I bailed on that figure every time. It was such a difficult move. I’d lose control right at the beginning and I just didn’t have the strength — or confidence — to get it back.”
That’s not all she got back. Although an asthma sufferer (and synchro is nothing if not a lung-busting sport), 46-year-old Kerner says she seldom uses her inhaler, is in far better shape and considerably less stressed. “And, honestly,” she laughs, “it was great for me to do something I was really rotten at and just keep with it!” Perhaps even more rewarding has been the contrast it provides to her role at the helm of Scholastic Canada, one of the country’s largest publishers of children’s books: It has been a pleasure, she says, “to do something where I can be part of a team and not have to be the one in charge!”
Becoming an athlete for the fun of it
The term “masters” has nothing to do with proficiency and everything to do with age. Depending on the sport, the minimum age for the masters category ranges from 19 to 35, and there is no upper age limit. However, numerous masters women are in their forties and fifties — an age at which many have come to realize just how important it really is to both stay active and make time for themselves.
Some are doing nothing more than joining in a workout once or twice a week with a group, and participating in an occasional local event. Others, like Kerner, are more involved. In addition to her weekly practice, she attends competitions at provincial and national levels.
“I remember going to the national masters championships in Toronto my first year, and looking at the women from all over the country and being so struck by them,” Kerner says. “They were all ages, all shapes, all sizes — and they had all come together to compete in a really difficult sport. And I had this wonderful revelation that, at my age, I could actually be a competitive athlete just because I wanted to be!”
Other enthusiasts travel not just around the country, but all over the world. Last year, for instance, swimmers headed to Perth, Australia, track and field athletes to Clermont-Ferrand, France, and volleyball players to St. George, Utah — all for world masters competitions. There is generally no need to qualify for masters events. Participants compete in their age category, and absolutely anyone can enter.
